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Conditions on Emmons


Norm

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I think it was just about this time last year when I watched a snowboarder (who had never climbed before) bite it at around 13k on the emmons and slide nearly 500 feet. I think he fell over the lip of a crevasse or two and ended up stopping out of sight. We watched this all from the sherman hut. Eventually he pulled himself together and got up and started making his way down with his partner. Two climbing rangers went up to meet him. Lucky guy...could have been killed. pitty.gif

 

In any event, that wasn't meant to discourage anybody from skiing the emmons, I plan to myself, just a random story I remembered. bigdrink.gif

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Just got off the Emmons and conditions are ideal for skiing (Thurs & Fri). On the advice of the climbing ranger we started up much laters (5:15 am) than the climbers. The trick was to time it so the summit was softened but the lower parts not too mushy.

 

We must have had beginners luck (Alberto and my first Rainier climb, Dave had done LR & DC). The top was wind sculptured but soft enough for careful turns. By 13,500 we started hitting sections of smooth corn snow which lasted all the way to Schurman (9,400).

 

After a couple hours rest and packing we skied out via the Interglacier. It was still pretty nice for late in the day. Skiing well into the trees at the end of Glacier Basin allowed us to get from Schurman to the car in just over 2 hrs.

 

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